Georgia Groundhog Tweets, Why Don’t You?

To all brand marketers who are unconvinced they should incorporate Twitter into their digital outreach, I give you the Georgia Groundhog: Gen. Beauregard Lee. The Southern rodent not only met crowds face-to-face early this morning to offer his weather prediction, he also Tweeted about his appearance. Yep, Twitter is now so prevalent, even our woodland creatures are getting into the mix.

Gen. Lee sent his Tweets via text message reporting, “a crowd is gathering outside my house now” and “lots of people yelling outside, must be time” as he prepared to pop out of his home at the Yellow River Game Ranch. A couple of minutes later, he pronounced to the waiting crowd that Spring is just around the corner. (So glad to hear that!)

Gen. Lee’s use of Twitter has secured a great deal of media coverage, something I’m sure the folks at the Yellow River Game Ranch are really enjoying. In fact, they’ve already reported more than 8,000 new site visitors from 25 different countries as of 2:00 p.m. EST today, which they attribute to their tech savvy furry friend. And, my informal little poll shows that, so far, Gen. Lee is garnering more media coverage with this online stunt than his top prognosticating competitor, Punxsutawney Phil.

Jennifer Jones-Mitchell

A global leader in social media marketing, Jennifer Jones-Mitchell has been at the center of traditional and digital PR since the mid 90s and has helped launch some of the world's most loved brands. She has been blogging about PR and social media marketing since 2007. Learn more at: www.jenniferjonesmitchell.com